The government has unveiled proposals to widen the Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS) to technologies beyond air and ground source heat pumps.
Under the changes, published for consultation by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), the £7,500 BUS grants will be available for air-to-air heat pumps and electric heating technologies, such as heat batteries.
The consultation proposes retaining certain restrictions and requirements to exclude hot water-only heat pumps from grant funding, because this would leave the property owner reliant on another heating appliance for space heating.
Fossil fuel ‘hybrid’ appliances and systems also remain excluded from the scheme, while eligible heat pumps must have sufficient capacity to meet a property’s entire space heating demand.
In addition, the consultation paper includes proposals to mitigate the relatively high upfront costs of buying heat pumps with new rental and hire-purchase arrangements.
These new purchase and ownership models could enable households to spread the cost of a heat pump over several years, or provide opportunities to lease one for a monthly fee instead, it says.
